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THE EAGLE AND THE FOX

A

N Eagle and a Fox had lived together as good neighbors, the former on the
summit of a high tree, the latter in a hole at the foot of it. One day
when the Fox was abroad, the Eagle swooped down and snatched the Fox’s
cub and carried it up to her nest, thinking that her high dwelling made
her secure from the fox’s revenge. The Fox returning upbraided the Eagle
for such a breach of confidence and begged to have her young one returned
to her. Finding that her entreaties availed nothing, the Fox snatched a
brand from an altar fire which had been lighted hard by and proceeded to
involve the whole tree in flames. The Eagle, to protect her nest and her
own young ones, restored the cub to its mother, which she would not do in
answer to the most earnest entreaties.